Askar Shakirov, Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Vice-President of the OSCE PA, took part in the meeting of the OSCE PA Bureau in Stockholm.
Parliamentarians discussed topical issues of the international agenda, the current work of the Parliamentary Assembly, as well as the plan of upcoming work for 2022.
At the Bureau meeting, the Kazakh parliamentarian delivered a report on his activities as the OSCE PA’s Special Representative on Sustainable Development Goals.
In the Senator’s opinion, despite some progress, the actions to implement the Goals have not yet attained the necessary pace and scale. The spread of coronavirus infection and the associated economic problems have negatively affected sustainable development indicators across the list of SDGs.
“As the Special Representative on the SDGs, I think that parliamentarians should use their powers and the increased readiness of the population for changes to act more decisively in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” he said.
Askar Shakirov briefed the OSCE parliamentarians on the plans to hold a web dialogue on the role of national parliaments and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in supporting the SDGs implementation on January 26, 2022.
The event is planned in the context of advancing the “Call to Action - Helsinki +50” initiative aimed at implementing a vision of a secure and sustainable future in conformity with the comprehensive OSCE approach to security.
During his visit to Stockholm, the Vice-Speaker had talks with Mikael Strandman, Deputy Head of the Association for Friendship with Central Asia under the Swedish Parliament. They discussed the status and prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation. The Swedish parliamentarian was briefed on the political reforms conducted in the framework of the modernization agenda of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
As a result of the meeting, the parties agreed to intensify the inter-parliamentary relations.
(Press Office of the Senate, 74-72-27)
